Introduction A Senedd Plenary session on 14 October included a statement from Lynne Neagle, Cabinet Secretary for Education, on the Additional Learning Needs [ALN] reforms. Transcript / Watch This was timed to coincide with Neagle’s publication of the ALN and Education Tribunal Legislative Review findings and the parent and carer… Read More »Cabinet Secretary for Education updates Senedd on ALN reforms
Evidence session probes Education Minister with repeated questions The Senedd’s Legislation Justice and Constitution Committee [LJCC] met on 12 May 2025 [Transcript , Video]. Agenda item 2 concerned the Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. This took the form of an evidence session with the Cabinet… Read More »Legislation Justice and Constitution Committee Seek Clarity about Westminster Bill
Debates held in Plenary and Committee sessions during late March and early April Welsh Conservatives abstain in Senedd CME Database Pilot Regulations vote Agenda item 7 of the Senedd Plenary session [video] on Tuesday 1 April was the Children Act 2004 (Children Missing Education Database) (Pilot) (Wales) Regulations 2025. Cabinet… Read More »Further activity in the Senedd on CME Databases and the CWS Bill
Not content with their own efforts to track and trace children being educated outside of school, Welsh Labour ask Bridget Phillipson if they can piggyback on her misleadingly named Children’s Wellbeing Bill Significant developments took place in the week beginning Monday 10 March. Two items were published that day by… Read More »Welsh Government Fires Both Barrels at Home Educated Children on the Same Day!
On 25 February, the South Wales Argus ran a report on a Monmouthshire Council People Scrutiny Committee meeting. The article was headed “Concerns over home school regulations.” The meeting had taken place on 18 February, and Item 4 on their agenda – Inclusion Strategy and Additional Learning Needs policy –… Read More »Monmouthshire Scrutiny Committee monitoring developments in England
Government-funded research report sets benchmarks to test feasibility and accuracy of matching education data with GP records to mimic proposed LA databases ADR Wales [Administrative Data Research Wales] is an organisation with a broad remit across different policy areas. As their Co-Director and Chief Statistician Stephanie Howarth states in the… Read More »How the Welsh government uses anonymised data to shape policy and service delivery
Failure of database pilots would make it necessary for the government to find a way to impose a duty on parents to register their children as being home educated On 17 September, MS for South Wales Central Rhys ab Owen, (Independent) tabled two Written Questions. Firstly he asked: “Why doesn’t… Read More »Senedd member submits Written Questions about improving accuracy of CME database and about evaluation of pilots
In 2018 the Education Minister of the time, Kirsty Williams, had no hesitation in saying that the proposals to create Children Missing Education databases were an integral part of the Welsh Government’s intention “to identify who is home educated, and to assess if they are receiving suitable education.” Two years… Read More »Cabinet Secretary for Education says CME Databases “are not about elective home education”
This post builds on previous correspondence we have had with Equity in Education [EiE] concerning the “Child Friendly Versions” [CFV] of the “Children missing education database” consultation which was held earlier this year. Relevant posts are from 8 April and 13 June. We received a reply from EIE on 9… Read More »Further Correspondence with Equity in Education – July/August 2024
In her first Evidence Session before CYPEC, Lynne Neagle effectively stated her view that attending school was better for children’s mental health than being home educated Wednesday 8 May saw the newly appointed Cabinet Secretary for Education, Lynne Neagle (Lab, Torfaen), attending her first meeting with the Children Young People… Read More »Cabinet Secretary for Education believes “being in school is a mental health intervention in itself”
